horseplay
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What does horseplay mean? Horseplay is play that is physically rough or rowdy, such as kids wrestling around on the ground or splashing around and climbing on each other in a pool. Horseplay usually involves kids, and the word is usually used by adults telling them to knock it off because someone could get hurt or something could get broken. Horseplay isn’t typically intended to cause anyone harm—it’s usually just physical play that’s supposed to be fun. However, the word is typically used to refer to activity that’s perhaps a bit too rough. The word roughhousing can mean the same thing. Terms like hijinks, shenanigans, tomfoolery, and fooling around are used in similar ways, but while horseplay often involves pranks or silliness, the word always implies a physical aspect. The informal verb phrase horse around means to engage in horseplay. Horseplay actually has an adjective form that’s not commonly used but should be: horseplayful. Example: No horseplay in the dining room! I don’t want anything getting broken!
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of horseplay
Explanation
Horseplay is a rough, rowdy kind of fun. If you and your friends are jokingly pushing each other into a swimming pool, it's horseplay. Horseplay is vaguely dangerous — someone could get hurt, and that's why you might hear a teacher, babysitter, or parent yelling, "Hey, kids! Knock off the horseplay!" The origin of this word is a bit vague, although it's known to date from the 1500s, probably from the sense of a horse as a heavy, strong, rough animal.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In reaction to Bohms' self-published racetrack gambling advice book, "The Art of Horseplay: The Life of a Handicapper," Kesterson wrote:
From Salon • Dec. 9, 2020
Horseplay with the corpse, and similar macabracadabra, has been a viable variety of humor in the human village since at least the Middle Ages, and few will seriously bother to accuse Hitchcock of bad taste.
From Time Magazine Archive
Helium Horseplay Many a time has Captain Katzenjammer* famed obese comic-strip caperer, deceived his frau by making a balloon facsimile of himself, painting his vapid likeness on it, stuffing it into bed.
From Time Magazine Archive
Horseplay was on show as much as horsemanship, and high spirits sometimes got the better of high style.
From Time Magazine Archive
Horseplay and practical jokes have been tolerated, at various times and places, at weddings.
From Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals by Sumner, William Graham
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
